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Topic : Towards Implementation of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development: How are we Prepared?  
 

Introduction

The United Nations Summit which sat on the 25th September 2015 at the UN Headquarters in New York unanimously adopted Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development enshrined with the spirit of “transforming our world”. During the summit, the UN and World Leaders announced ...Click here to read more

     
Comments From TAKNET Members
Leonce Emmanuel  : Friday, March 18, 2016    
  RE: What should Tanzania do to ensure that these challenges are addressed? What should be done to ensure adequate and credible monitoring mechanism is in place? How do we ensure we have national statistical agencies which have the requisite capacities in terms of possessing the relevant data set to facilitate management and tracking of SDGs indicators?

The biggest mistake that are made in any plan is the failure to setup mechanism to monitor and control the whole process. One of the weakest point in our monitoring and control mechanism is the use of REPORTS THAT GIVE NO ROOM FOR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM.

In this area I would be happy to hear other member's comment on the two-folds in the planning and implementation of any plan, specifically the MKUKUTA III.

First: those who give the task of preparing plan -sectoral (education, water, etc.). Should present the plan before sectoral stakeholders with power to vote on the bankability of that plan. If the PLANNER is not going to face any, let's call it "BACKLASH" from his/her stakeholder, nothing serious will be done to make the plan bankable;

Second: At the end of each milestone, the PLANNER AND IMPLEMENTOR should again face their sectoral stakeholders and present what they have achieved based on the PLAN. Failure again should be explained, especially in relation to availed resources. Where resources were available and yet they failed to accomplish milestone's target, the punishment should be crystal clear. In fact where there are carrots and sticks many -would be applicant for various positions - will not even dare to come forward for the posts. Currently almost everyone with academic qualifications and the so called experience in office (not delivering results) will come forward and even by using backdoors to get the position.

The end results should be crystal clear from the word -GO- and the implement should be able to show them "RESULTS" from the first day. If someone doest have a clue on how it will be like - paper-wise and physical-wise, he/she is useless.

It is like to put someone as agriculture minister where he has never seen how food crops are planted, cared till the produce and get harvested, except in TV - the result would definitely of TV style - soft copy.

Someone will tell me that we have parliament - but before you think of the parliament, think also how those people find their way into parliament and what they want in there. I have listened and met some Parliamentary Committees - personal and friends' interests go before national interests. Most of them are lobbied to push agenda of some business men /women or the big boys. The more we rely on the parliament the deeper we will go into mess. Once they get a ticket to the parliament they are guaranteed a five years tenure or until death do them apart.

 
     

Leonce Emmanuel  : Friday, February 26, 2016    
  It is always good to have a plan - with goals and targets. Tanzania Government has already established the MKUKUTA II (National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of PovertyII), which ended in 2015. I am in agreement with catch word such as “leave no one behind in the pursuit of development” but not with “zero poverty by 2030”.

In my business life, we established an NGO that aimed at assisting a group of youth in improving their economical and social welfare. While all of them were ready to move to the new level in their life but it was only at that specific time and it did not last long. People are addicted with the "instants" - instant coffee, milk, etc. They also think it is easy to have instant economic development. Unless the government train or impact awareness that will make people realise that one has to sweat his brow to earn his living, poverty will never be eradicated. You can give each citizen US$ 1,000,000 today but after few days you will find out that, all that cash has moved and is concentrated in the hands of few and the country has become more poorer than before.

Having said that, lets delve on few things in the agenda:

(i) Integrating the universal agenda with our national level priorities - there is what we call customisation of issues. We as a nation we should customise these goals to our internal environment. We differ from UK, Russia, US, China, Kenya, etc.

One of the first thing our country should focus on is "enablers". What is our main enablers? We have to identify what will enable other things to happen before we say "zero poverty by 2030" - because this can only happen if other things have taken place. For example one of the enabler of growth in economy is infrastructure - roads, railways, air transport, marine transport, etc. It is not possible to eradicate poverty to someone who lives in Ileje mountains where there are plenty of banana but no access to the market. But at the same time, it is not feasible to improve movement of goods and services if the government continue to do and re-do the same roads every year instead of building new one.

Therefore it is important that our government first customise the goals to our local environment, then identify our enablers, then what are the things we can do best - and do we have people to do them.

One of the things we have to learn from successful football coaches is that they don't keep someone in the pitch even when he/she is not up to the standard required in that match just because he/she is a prominent player, they replace with another in order to achieve their goals. I noted in one country where CEOs had to submit reports to stakeholders after every milestone, and his/her report challenged by those stakeholders. If it is proved he/she has been given all resources needed to achieve goals set, and has failed, then he is out of the office.

Therefore we should select out of those goals and targets and customise them on the basis of our capacity in terms of financial and human resources.

(ii) How shall we manage to finance the new ambitious agenda given that domestic resources will play a key role?

As a country we have to set our milestones based on our priorities - generator of income first as they will generate funds for future activities. But as i said before we choose those activities we can do best and with the available resources. Our pace should be based on our financial muscles. Our implementors should be assessed on annual basis and milestones set at the onset.

 
     

Oswald Mashindano  : Wednesday, January 6, 2016    
  I agree with Aristarik that as we undertake a review of MKUKUTA II and Five Years Development Plan I (FYDP I), SDGs need to be integrated. For your information Aristarik, it has already been decided that SDGs will form a major input of the envisaged Five Year Development Plan II. So that is taken care of. We should now dwell with other pertinent matters such as - how Tanzania should involve the grassroot i.e. the Local Government Authorities (LGAs) by way of building their capacities to enable them make a meaningful contribution in SDGs implementation. Among the challenges experienced during the MDGs implementation in Tanzania is a weak coordination, poorly developed institutional framework and poor management as well as leadership of MDGs implementation process, including the monitoring system.
What should Tanzania do to ensure that these challenges are addressed? What should be done to ensure adequate and credible monitoring mechanism is in place? How do we ensure we have national statistical agencies which have the requisite capacities in terms of possessing the relevant data set to facilitate management and tracking of SDGs indicators?

Since our government has ratified and adopted SDGs, there is an urgent need to enhance capacity building of the local institutions and human capital, partnership and stakeholder participation.
 
     

Aristarik Hubert Maro  : Wednesday, December 16, 2015    
  I am still wondering if Tanzania can review its Vision 2025 to have have Vision 2050 and accommodate all the SDGs for the next 30 years, but visioning Tanzania in the next 35 years.

We need to see Tanzania in the next 50 years and the planning should be done now.

For instance on Education sector, where do we see Tanzanians in the next 50 years, ...0 level of literate citizens, free education, maximization use of modern technology in teaching and learning, production of home based products from agriculture minerals, gas, oil and the rest. All these will be met if we can plan NOW.

Thank you

 
     

Aristarik Hubert Maro  : Tuesday, December 15, 2015    
  Dear Members,

I do agree with the contributors on the discussion,

I would like to anchor my voice on the lesson learnt from MDGs to SDGs, that; realization of MDGs impact to the local or common mwananchi was so minimal to measure, the feeling of poverty reduction, or equal education for all for instance was not much felst down the stream...of which we should channel funding to the common mwananchi than the implementors.

Will appreciate if implementation of SDGs projects will be geared changing the lives of the poor people in the less developed countries. Looking at those prone with disasters in the poor countries. Let the programme implemetors come from the targeted communities, in order to cut management costs which are always more than the costs of solving the problems.

As we prepare the five year plan, it is my hope that, consideration of the stated SDGs at country level be part of our plans, and in that we can run the programme concurrently with our plans.

 
     

Danford Sango  : Tuesday, December 15, 2015    
  I second your point view point Mr. Makongo, just to expand on the issue of financing I do concur with you 100% on the importance of domestic resources - in this regard, it is very pleasing to see efforts being undertaken by our government in increasing efficiency of tax collection and sealing all loopholes for tax evasion. On the other hand though, I've noted that some citizens are so excited that they start to think that we don't need development partners anymore. For example, when the US government issued a warning a few weeks ago that they will withhold MCC support pending to addressing some governance issues, some people in the street were a kind of mocking that it is not important to cooperate because we can walk on our own feet now.

I suppose we need some education in this area because we still need development cooperation (donor support/foreign aid) for our development as we are implementing SDGs. The right attitude should be, "we strive to increase domestic resources at the same time honor foreign aid as a important complimentary source of financing for our development". I'll be coming up with more.

 
     

Tumainiel I. Mangi  : Tuesday, December 15, 2015    
  Hello the team,

Foremost i would like to thank you for the forum for sharing knowledge to foster our country's development.

I would like to talk much on this SDGs topic since i have engaged much and follow the whole process at country level and global level.

To provide some meaningful inputs on how well we are prepared with SDGs, anyone would look on challenges and opportunities available in our country for effective implementation, review and follow up of SDGs with political commitment on decision making.

We are currently reviewing our 1st phase of FYDP and progress to undertake the 2rd phase. Asking ourselves is what is the level of participation of other stakeholders to this reviews and plan together for 2rd FYDP phase. This is time and opportunity where the ten Tanzania priority SDGs out of 17 global SDGs must be incoporated and clearly defined for implementation. Tanzania is among the only two members from African countries along with Uganda to the UN member group of indicator framework known IAE Group responsipble for SDGs indicators. How well do we use this opportunity in line with our country's SDGs indicators framework? SDGs have been adopted but stil there is so much to do for the agenda to be well known to vovernment officials, communities and other actors of development. All stakeholders must be fully engaged in planning and implementation of SDGs and therefore sensitization, localization and domestication of SDGs from local level to national level is very much important. How well are we prepared to finance our SDGs at country level? With the limit support of ODA, poor tax system, illicit financial flow, capital outflow, corruption and poor governance? So much has to be done to secure domestic resources for financing the SDGs unless we will end up having the challenges faced implementation of MDGs.

We actually have to review our tax system, how many companies are registered how many pays tax, we have to review our audit system not taking too much time to audit one company, look innovative ways in domestic resources mobilization and proper public expenditure.

All these aspects have to be considered when analyzing how well we are prepared for SDGs for effective implementation the topic that needs enough time to explain about.

Till the next time when udeas collide for sustainable development of our country.

Regards,

Tumainiel Mangi

Hope foundation for social entrepreneurship& National Focal Point Beyond 2015 campaign.

Mob: 0712775664

 
     

Eugenia Maeda  : Tuesday, December 15, 2015    
  Towards implementing of sustainable development goals.

It is correct that the eighth millennium development goals (MDGs) were set by the U.N to influence the development policies and strategies mostly of developing nations for 2000-2015.

In retrospect, we know the stakeholders are aware of what the goals were and should analyze each one of them to ascertain where we were successful and where we failed and the reasons, if any, which led to our success or failure. It is through the learning process, from the past, that the 17 SDGs can be sustainable development goals.

As a nation, let us assess and seriously question ourselves on the outcome of the 8 MDGs, as we prepare to embark on 17 new SDGs.

Talking about any nation’s development, socioeconomic development and human mental development (values) are interwoven. Mwalimu Nyerere’s adage was any meaningful development must be man centered.

All in all, meaningful and sustainable development can only come about if the leaders can be looked upon as role models and involving those being led in decisions affecting their own lives.

Education plays a big role in the development of a country. The government should sort its priorities towards the right direction for the benefit of its citizens.

1) Agriculture: We should have enough field assistants to train farmers in order to do commercial and subsistence farming.

2) Trading: We should engage in international trade.

3) Improve infrastructure to facilitate the transportation of farm produce.

4) Health facilities: Improve on hospitals, supply of medicines, qualified hospital staff etc.

5) Invite investors: Look for opportunities, learn from them, technology, business, creativeness and innovation etc.

6) Finances should be controlled and loans should be directed to the meaningful projects.

These are a few examples, MDGs faced limited resources and unpreparedness of developing countries.

Eugenia Maeda

 
     

Tumainiel I. Mangi  : Wednesday, December 2, 2015    
  Hello the team,

Foremost i would like to thank you for the forum for sharing knowledge to foster our country's development.

I would like to talk much on this SDGs topic since i have engaged much and follow the whole process at country level and global level.

To provide some meaningful inputs on how well we are prepared with SDGs, anyone would look on challenges and opportunities available in our country for effective implementation, review and follow up of SDGs with political commitment on decision making.

We are currently reviewing our 1st phase of FYDP and progress to undertake the 2rd phase. Asking ourselves is what is the level of participation of other stakeholders to this reviews and plan together for 2rd FYDP phase. This is time and opportunity where the ten Tanzania priority SDGs out of 17 global SDGs must be incoporated and clearly defined for implementation. Tanzania is among the only two members from African countries along with Uganda to the UN member group of indicator framework known IAE Group responsipble for SDGs indicators. How well do we use this opportunity in line with our country's SDGs indicators framework? SDGs have been adopted but stil there is so much to do for the agenda to be well known to vovernment officials, communities and other actors of development. All stakeholders must be fully engaged in planning and implementation of SDGs and therefore sensitization, localization and domestication of SDGs from local level to national level is very much important. How well are we prepared to finance our SDGs at country level? With the limit support of ODA, poor tax system, illicit financial flow, capital outflow, corruption and poor governance? So much has to be done to secure domestic resources for financing the SDGs unless we will end up having the challenges faced implementation of MDGs.

We actually have to review our tax system, how many companies are registered how many pays tax, we have to review our audit system not taking too much time to audit one company, look innovative ways in domestic resources mobilization and proper public expenditure.

All these aspects have to be considered when analyzing how well we are prepared for SDGs for effective implementation the topic that needs enough time to explain about.

Till the next time when udeas collide for sustainable development of our country.

Regards,

Tumainiel Mangi

Hope foundation for social entrepreneurship& National Focal Point Beyond 2015 campaign.

Mob: 0712775664

 
     

Japhet Makongo  : Wednesday, December 2, 2015    
  Sustainable Development simply means having in place and in practice long lasting commitment and investment towards the priority of people. So, three things are needed. First, commitment and willing political leaders at all levels. Second, serious identification and funding of people's priorities and third, promoting, investing and using our own abundant resources to capitalize on the local, regional and international markets. This means that we become less and less dependant on foreign coffers. Develpoing capacity is talked a lo, but idf we are serious on the three aspects, this will fall in place, it is a tool like others

Makongo

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P.O. Box 32670, Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA

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Tel: +253 24 2732125+253 24 2732125, Mobile:+253 758 270 254+253 758 570 253

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Kenneth mhaiki  : Wednesday, December 2, 2015    
  development is for people not for some people, the govt should ensure all of its parastatals run under citizen umbrela, so that people see what is going on in the governt also opportunities to people, especially mutual participation.........  
     

Danford Sango  : Wednesday, December 2, 2015    
  SDG 1 says "End poverty in all its forms everywhere". The targets include (a) eradicate extreme poverty by 2030 (b) reduce poverty by half by 2030 (c) achieve substantial coverage of social protection by 2030 (d) ensure equal rights to economic resources as well as access to basic services; ensure equal rights to land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate technology, and financial services including microfinance.

This in my view is a useful and loaded goal. Poverty reduction has been the cornerstone of development policy of many developing countries since 1990s. The experience we have in Tanzania from MDGs implementation in the area of poverty reduction include the following. Firstly, much as the county experienced fast economic growth rates 6 - 7%, the rates were below the target. MKUKUTA target was for the country to achieve higher growth rates 8 - 10% for a consistent period of time. Secondly, growth wasn't inclusive i.e. jobless growth. Agriculture sector which is the main employer had experienced consistently low growth rates.

These lessons from MDGs are critical for consideration as we are about to start implementation of Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. It is important that we strengthen our efforts so as to ensure that we achieve even higher rates of growth. Secondly, we need to create economic activities which generate jobs for the majority. The direction of revamping industrialization and especially manufacturing is the right one. However, emphasis on industrialization shouldn't compromise our efforts to modernize agricultural sector. Other mentioned targets are ok but I think we need to examine microfinance more closely. The interest rates attached to loans are sometimes so high to the extent of affecting the poor instead of helping them.

I'll be coming up with more insights

 
     

shijja kevin kuhumba  : Sunday, November 29, 2015    
  Dear participants of this discussion regarding implementation of sustainable development goals. My humble solution focuses on the investing more efforts on transparency in government dealings and in public sectors. To my mind, people should know how the public sector operates to realize its objectives. This requires strong institutions guided by ethical standards and integrity. Consequently; this could promote good governance, which is an indicator of sustainable development.

Also, we need to focus on empowering collective, groups and associations of entrepreneurs, people in the informal sectors and farmers. For instance, we have many groups commonly known as VICOBA, even SACCOS, and groups in villages working together so as to improve their levels of operations, and share the benefits. These groups should be supported by economic facilities, safety nets and other opportunities like establishment of agro-based industries so as to add value to their products, ready markets and technical assistance.

 
     

Abdallah Hassan  : Sunday, November 29, 2015    
  Dear participants of this discussion regarding implementation of sustainable development goals. My humble solution focuses on the investing more efforts on transparency in government dealings and in public sectors. To my mind, people should know how the public sector operates to realize its objectives. This requires strong institutions guided by ethical standards and integrity. Consequently; this could promote good governance, which is an indicator of sustainable development. Also, we need to focus on empowering collective, groups and associations of entrepreneurs, people in the informal sectors and farmers. For instance, we have many groups commonly known as VICOBA, even SACCOS, and groups in villages working together so as to improve their levels of operations, and share the benefits. These groups should be supported by economic facilities, safety nets and other opportunities like establishment of agro-based industries so as to add value to their products, ready markets and technical assistance.  
     

Oswald Mashindano  : Friday, November 27, 2015    
  I am glad that this topical theme has been brought up by ESRF’s TAKNET, and it will be interesting to see the views of Tanzanians on this pertinent issue. There is no doubt that successful implementation of the SDGs hinges on their synchronization or link to the goals and targets of the national development agenda (domestic development agenda). Harmonization of SDGs and the national development agenda is therefore a requisite if the goals and targets spelt out in the Tanzania National Development Vision 2025 and other national frameworks are to be attained. In line with integrating SDGs with the national development agenda is the issue of localization of SDGs. One of the factors for the poor performance of MDGs is the limited involvement and therefore limited capacity of the critical mass of implementers (key players at lower level) i.e. smallholder farmers, small scale fishermen, traders etc.

For many years capacity building at all levels particularly the lower level i.e. District Councils (headquarters), Ward or Shehia and Village or community levels was lacking and yet these are key players in terms of implementation of all national development policies including MDGs. Two major capacity building areas that were particularly identified during the 2012-13 consultations include human resource capacity (skills development), and financial resources capacity. Human resource capacity building was associated with improved education, nutrition and health systems, which can also address the critical shortage of human resource in strategic areas in the country while financial resource capacity building was associated with resource mobilization skills; budgeting; strategic resource allocation; timely disbursement; financial management and efficient resource utilization. This is a critical mass of implementers of SDGs in Tanzania thus; unless such players are empowered SDGs are not likely to be attained. What do you think? Which other areas are critical for the success of SDGs implementation in Tanzania?

 
     

Danford Sango  : Friday, November 27, 2015    
  Dear Hassan, the proposed discussion forum is not only interesting but also topical. Following the adoption of Post MDG Global Development Agenda, the main thinking now is on implementation of the Development Agenda in our country. Certainly this is the best time for having this discussion when the country is in the process of developing Second Years Development Plan (2016/17 - 2020/21). My understanding is that all members of the drafting team for FYDP II are TAKNET members i.e. they are following this discussion forum. If this is correct, it means that through this forum we can enrich our policy makers with ideas and perspectives on the way we would like to see SDGs mainstreamed in national policy documents. That is my quick initial reaction. I'll be coming up with more  
     

Abdallah Hassan  : Thursday, November 26, 2015    
  The United Nations Summit which sat on the 25th September 2015 at the UN Headquarters in New York unanimously adopted Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development enshrined with the spirit of “transforming our world”. During the summit, the UN and World Leaders announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 targets, which are integrated and indivisible. The new goals and targets will come into effect on 1st January 2016.

While many of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require a unified global response, it is vital that each country responds in a way that facilitates the greatest development domestically. Put it differently, it is important to recognize the uniqueness of SDGs that they are globally relatable and simultaneously recognize country specific challenges.

Moving forward, the next steps in the implementation of agenda 2030 at country levels include incorporating elements of SDGs into national policies, strategies and monitoring systems. Specifically for Tanzania, the next step with Agenda 2030 is to incorporate elements of the agenda into the next Five Years Development Plan (FYDP 2016/17 – 2020/21). The next steps include also mainstreaming SDG indicators into national data generation and monitoring systems led by our National Statistical Office namely the National Bureau of Statistics (Mainland) and Office of Chief Government Statistician (OCGS) Zanzibar

Putting the above situation in perspective, it is conceptually clear on the move that Tanzania ought to make in translating global commitments into actions. On the other hand, many questions still linger on the minds of development stakeholders in the country regarding implementation of the ambitious and transformative Post 2015 Development Agenda. In this regard, the broad question is how are we prepared in implementing Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development in Tanzania? Some specific questions include:-

(a) How can we integrate the universal agenda with our national level priorities?

(b) How shall we manage to finance the new ambitious agenda given that domestic resources will play a key role?

(c) How can we increase data needed for monitoring of SDGs (taking into account of the significant increase of data needs from 8 goals and 18 targets (MDGs) and 17 goals and 169 targets (SDGs)

(d) What lessons have we leant in the course of implementation of MDGs for the past 15 years and how do we take advantage of those lessons during the implementation of Agenda 2030 in Tanzania?

You are hereby invited to contribute to the TAKNET forum by sharing your perspective on the above and other similar questions.

Moderators are: Dr. Oswald Mashindano; Dr. Tausi Kida; Mrs. Margareth Nzuki, Mr. Danford Sango and Mr. Abdallah Hassan

 
     

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